CCTV in class spies on teachers, says union

By Graeme Paton
The Telegraph
Mar. 20, 2008

Schools are becoming "Orwellian" societies where CCTV cameras in classrooms monitor pupil behaviour and staff performance, teachers will warn today.

They are relying on "Big Brother-style" tactics to crack down on assaults on staff and fellow children, it is claimed.

Many of the Government's semi-independent academies have installed cameras and two-way mirrors to let senior staff monitor pupils, they say.

But the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers fears that the systems are being used by heads to monitor staff performance, putting teachers' ability to work independently at risk.

Speaking at the ATL's annual conference in Torquay, Julia Neal, the union's president, said the shift was symptomatic of the "current reality of over-measured, over-monitored education".

She also criticised the increasing use of league tables and examination targets which, she said, stifled teachers' ability to work and undermined pupils' learning.

"Teachers will talk about surveillance cameras in classrooms, about over-zealous observation of their teaching," she said. "We will hear about teachers delivering a prescriptive curriculum and teaching to the tests in order to secure a good place in the league tables for their school.

"These issues all add up to an education system which focuses on targets and outcomes, and fails to meet individual pupils' needs.

"It is time for a re-think by the Government on what constitutes real success for pupils before the push for better results, increased monitoring and more measurements means young people can only function in a society which has been so spoon-fed that it cannot think for itself and cannot challenge and grow in the future."

Schools are believed to have first installed classroom CCTV four years ago, with an academy in Middlesbrough using cameras to monitor pupil behaviour and protect expensive equipment.

Mary Bousted, the union's general secretary, said many teachers were alarmed by the technology which meant many would "never take risks" for fear of being penalised.

"If you are always on your guard, you end up, quite frankly, teaching by numbers," she said.